Tail Between Our Legs

It's been such a long time since I've put together a post, I've forgotten where we left off, maybe someone will refresh my memory ...

Oh yes, that's right, we're still in Rumphi, we're still hours from Lilongwe, it's now Saturday and we need to get back for our Sunday flights. We're fine, we have the entire day ... what was that? Shoot, I forgot we don't have a vehicle.

So here we are, still in Rumphi, merely a couple hundred miles away from Lilongwe, we got up super early to start our day, we'll be fine. First leg, Rumphi to Mzuzu.

If anyone has been in a developing country, you've probably seen them, the small mini-vans that whiz around towns, packed to the gills (I had to look up the origin of this expression, amazingly, not in Wikipedia), yes, I know you've seen them before, I have too. We've all seen them but how many of us have actually been in one? Wow, I'm impressed. I've never been in one myself, not until this day.

Let me back up. The night before, we were discussing our options with how to return to Lilongwe. Since another rental was not an option, it was down to public transportation, either bus or even possibly renting out and entire mini-bus for our trip. What we decided to start was we had to at least get to Mzuzu, a slightly large city that has a bus depot and then figure out our options from there.

So here we are, with our bags bulging out the back, we pile into the bus, the 5 of us and 15 others for a total of 20. We were like clowns in a VW Bug. And I thought our prior sleeping arrangement were close quarters, at least it was only for an hour. Here's a look inside:


That was taken from the last row, me and Dan are sitting in the opposite facing seats, like the seats in the first couple rows of a Southwest flight, except much tighter.

We arrive in Mzuzu and are delighted to find that a bus to Lilongwe was still at the depot. The night before, we thought the bus would depart too early but we discover that much like traffic signals, bus schedules are suggestive too. The buses depart only when full and fortunately, it wasn't full but close enough that we didn't have to wait too long. About an hour later, we're on our way. Here we are in our seats, in the very rear of the bus:





Did I mention the engine was beneath our seats? It was rather warm but we did very well, just happy to be heading in the right direction. We met some people on the bus, played some cards and made fun of Ryan.

RS: Playing cards without a table:



7 hours later, we finally made it back to Lilongwe sans Hilux.

We did have to say good-bye to Moya. I don't know where we would've been if it wasn't for Moya.

Thank you Moya!

Moya and Daniel

Have Radiator, Will Travel

So we pushed the Hilux over to the side of the road. The car was billowing smoke from under the hood. Our troubles garnered the immediate attention of everyone at the intersection. One guy started yelling "konnichi wa!" to Jon in a harassing tone that I didn't much care for and that bothered Jon as well.

After we managed to get the car off to the side of the road, a number of people came by to see what was the matter with our smoking engine. Dan related to us that when he had broken down in a different vehicle a few months earlier in Lilongwe, some of the people who came to offer their assistance expected compensation for their efforts. To stem any prospective requests here, Dan firmly told the passersby that while he appreciated their concern for our predicament, we were not in need of their help.

We examined the front of the Hilux and saw that it was leaking water. The epoxy didn't hold.

So we waited for the car to cool down and, after awhile, added more water to the radiator. Jon, stepping out of his adopted role as decisional agnostic, strongly advocated for restarting the car and pushing on. His idea was that we could carefully monitor the temperature gauge and pull over periodically to add water to the radiator as needed. Dan favored going to Rumphi to have the holes in the radiator fixed permanently with epoxy and a blow torch. In the end, we didn't have the option of doing either.

After the engine cooled for a good half hour, we refilled the radiator with water and tried to restart the car. Nothing. Not even a wimper.

At this point, I knew the car was kaput.

Dan resolved to elicit help from a friend he had met while doing research in Rumphi a few months earlier. He had hired a guy named Moya to help translate Dan's field research questions and help analyze the data they collected. Moya was well connected in Rumphi, so well connected in fact, that he was set to run for local political office in the next election cycle. Dan knew that Moya could recommend a mechanic.

Let me pause here for a second to give Moya all the thanks he is due. First, here's a picture of him with Squeezy:



Moya saved us that day, pure and simple. Without him, things would have ended far worse for us, I'm quite certain of that. If you see this man, you should shake his hand and maybe push him a few soft dollars for his political campaign. McCain and Feingold don't need to know nothing about it, if you know what I mean . . .

So Dan called Moya who luckily had not yet left town for a scheduled trip to Lilongwe. When Dan explained our situation, Moya said he would walk immediately over to talk to a mechanic he knew and give Dan a call back. Moya went to the mechanic's place but the mechanic was not there. He called Dan to tell him he would try another mechanic in town. When he got to the second mechanic's place, Moya called Dan again so that Dan could talk directly to the mechanic.

The mechanics agreed to take a public minibus down to take a look at our radiator; they had no access to a functioning vehicle.

Here's a look at the approximate location of the mechanic's yard and the place we were stranded. As you can see, we were fairly lucky to have broken down relatively close to town.



You can't see the scale that clearly, but we broke down about five miles outside of town.

Anyway, about a half hour to forty-five minutes later, Moya and two mechanics showed up to take a look at our car. Dan told them about the epoxy the mechanics in Nyika had applied and that the car was leaking water. He also told them that we had tried unsuccessfully to restart the car.

The mechanics looked at the engine and removed the radiator.



They said they'd take the radiator with them back to their garage where they would permanently fix the holes with a blow torch. So they got back on a minibus with our radiator to return to Rumphi. Moya stayed behind with us.

About two hours later, around 8:00 p.m., the mechanics returned. They had fixed the holes we could see as well as a couple holes that were hidden from view near the bottom of the radiator. At this point it was dark so we gave them our camping headlights to use to reinstall the radiator.

When it was back in place, we tried to restart the car. Just as I feared: this car now has bigger problems than a leaky radiator.

The mechanics wanted to try push starting the thing. Well that won't work because it's an automatic but we followed the mechanic's instructions anyway until he realized it was an automatic.

Then, for a reason I don't understand, the mechanic had us push the car over to a dirt area in front of a general store about 20 yards off the road.